By conventional standards, Bobby James Moore
is mentally disabled, but the state of Texas, which has its own
standard, disagrees.

The U.S. Supreme Court
ruled 14 years ago that mentally disabled people could not be executed,
but allowed states to decide how to define whether a person convicted
of a crime punishable with death was of sound mind.

Moore and two other men entered the Birdsall
Lucky Seven supermarket on April 25, 1980, armed, with plans to rob the
clerk, 73-year-old James McCarble. In the process, Moore shot McCarble
in the head with the 12-guage shotgun he was carrying.

The two other men received long jail
sentences, but avoided the death penalty. Moore, who told police he
pulled the trigger by accident, however, was convicted for the murder
and sentenced to death.

In 1986, Moore was almost executed but was
given a stay 10 hours before he was scheduled to die. Although most of
his appeals, including the one resulting in the stay, were denied, the
Supreme Court gave him a new punishment hearing for having an
ineffective defense attorney -- and was again given the death penalty in
1991.

The case for his disability
is lifelong: Court documents show intellectual disability and severe
abuse going back to his childhood and he failed first grade twice and
was socially promoted up through ninth grade, when he dropped out.

By the time Moore dropped out of high school,
he could not tell time, read a calendar or understand subtraction. IQ
tests have put his score somewhere 57 and 78 -- which is considered
disabled by most professionals.

Texas officials say that while conventional
medical standards suggest Moore is disabled, the state codified the
Lennie Standard in 2004 and state law requires he be evaluated under it.

The Texas standard, officials say, contends Moore is eligible to be put to death.